How do you sort?

I'm sure everyone has their own method of sorting through the merchandise that get from storage units. How do you do it?

Do you sort through the stuff while in the unit?
Do you pull it out of the unit and go through it outside?
Do you take everything to your home or business and then sort through it?

Do you sort everything yourself or do you have help?

Do you have any tips to make the sorting process more efficient?

It depends
Currently our method is-sort through it on site for pictures, id, etc.  Leave a box of that stuff there, and then sort through it all back at the shop as we have time.

Do you have any tips to make the sorting process more efficient?

eeny, meeny, miny, moe

We do a surface sort in the unit. I try to move out as fast as I can. Detailed sort at home or the shop when I get it open.

For me there are a couple of factors to concider. One how far away from home am I? The farther away I am the more apt I am to do a quick sort for personal items. I hate to have to drive far to get those things back. Two how well the unit is packed. If everything is sealed in a cardboard box I tend to bring them back before opening them up. It's just easer to pack a trailer if the boxes are nice.

Most of the time just load everything in the trailer (huge enclosed trailer). Get it home home and park it next to the dump trailer. Sort box by box and make piles, trash and unsellable stuff goes right in the dump trailer, obvious stuff of value is pretty much photographed and listed where appropriate as it is uncovered (Craigslist, Ebay, Amazon), questionable stuff is piled up to research later, flea market / garage sale stuff is boxed up and stored until the next garage sale, and give away stuff is boxed and either taken directly to Goodwill or we have a person we can call who will come haul it away to sell. We also call that same person at the end of the day after a garage sale and give him all the leftovers. We do not attempt to garage sale anything more than once. Oh, and there's usually a recycle pile also. Used to try to sell brass stuff at garage sales (candlesticks etc), now they pretty much all go in the recycle boxes.